The Florida Gators defense is coming off of its worst performance of the season in a 42-28 loss at LSU and the news didn’t get better on Monday.
Heading into a pivotal matchup on the road at South Carolina Dan Mullen sounded less than optimistic about two key defensive players this weekend.
“We’ve got to see with our [defensive] ends, they’ll be game-time decisions so we’ll have to see how that goes this week for them,” Mullen said of Jon Greenard and Jabari Zuniga.
Florida has played most of the season without Zuniga. The Gators’ leading returning sack getter from 2018 sprained his ankle on the first defensive series against Kentucky. Zuniga tried to return Saturday in Baton Rouge but played sparingly in the first half and then re-aggravated his injury in the third quarter before missing the rest of the game.
Greenard has thrived in Zuniga’s absence. The graduate transfer leads the team with four sacks and 6.5 tackles for a loss. He’s also accounted for seven quarterback hurries, three pass breakups, a forced fumble and an interception this season. He’s almost single handily made up for Florida missing Zuniga’s presence.
“Injuries happen, you come into the year and say ‘Hey if you’re going to have to have a great year, most teams are going to have a great year, you’re going to stay injury-free,’ we’re probably the furthest thing away from that in America of staying injury-free this year,” Mullen said. “But what our guys have shown some, having to deal with adversity and come through that, and continue to perform and find a way to win games, despite all of the injuries that we’ve had to deal with.”
Florida has dealt with injuries well and they have a bye week coming up but they have to get past South Carolina first. Florida has everything in front of them currently, but a loss at South Carolina would severely derail those aspirations.
Last week the Gamecocks upset Georgia in Athens but starting quarterback Ryan Hilinski suffered a leg injury and didn’t return to the game. Dakereon Joyner replaced Hilinski, completing 6-of-12 passes and rushing for 28 yards on six carries. Sunday night Will Muschamp said Hilinski will be ready to go against Florida. Even if he is able to play his mobility would have been in question but it appears Florida’s top pass rushers won’t be available.
“It’s a big loss when they’re not out there, because especially in the past games, we can’t let the quarterback get comfortable so those guys always make sure he’s uncomfortable for us and that in turn helps the DBs because the balls have to get out quicker and stuff like that,” Donovan Stiner said.
There is still a long way to go and neither player has been ruled out but Monday’s prognosis from Dan Mullen was less than encouraging.